Originally Posted By 101_proof:
Thanks buddy, they are great snakes.
And just to add, I don't feed my snakes small kittens.

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Why, are they too small to eat cats yet? Cool snakes though. My little girl really likes snakes, so I'll probably get her one when the other kids get a little older and I don't have to worry about them pissing it off.
Michael
p.s. Where is the bushmaster?

Harvest venom to save lives, besides my Rock Python at a full grown 20 FT 200 pounds is just as dangerous. I do have experience with venemous snakes, looking back I wish I had pursued herpetology as a career considering how much I love it.
These plans change if I ever have children though.

How's that rock python? I hear they have the reputation of a pit bull. I've had many different breeds of snakes over the last ten years. The rock python is one that I stayed away from. I'll be fair and say I also stayed away from burms as well. I have 2 kids and didn't want anything that got over 8-10 feet. I have had colombian boas, hogg island boas, malasian blood pythons, borneo bloods, coastal carpet pythons, jungle carpet pythons, and king snakes. I even got the kids their our corn snakes. I worked great to satisfy their curiosity and keep them from wanting to handle the bigger snakes. It's a wonderful hobby, but I could not afford snakes and guns. I had ten years + with reptiles and figured it was time to move on to something else. I do want to get a pair of albino colombians once the price comes down some more. Great pets, enjoy the hobby.
[beer]

Nice snakes man.
I have loved snakes all my life and just recently graduated to catching venemous ones.
Locally, we have only 3 venemous species: water moccassin, copperhead and what I suppose is a timber rattlesnake.
So far have managed only the cottonmouth and the copperhead. The coperheads are nasty little buggers though. Very tempermental.
Nice hobby.

Originally Posted By az-gunner:
How's that rock python? I hear they have the reputation of a pit bull.

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Rocks have a nasty undeserved reputation, mainly because of so many being caught in the wild and imported, Riggo is a 4th generation breed, very tame. He was crapping left and right the first few times I handled him, but has been fine the last couple of months. I am surprised to have only been bit once so far and that was the first day I got him, between the bumpy ride home and the fact he was shedding made him a bit nippy and he got me taking him out of the bag, other than that he is way more docile than I would have ever expected.
I only went with the Rock because I don't like Burmese and and and am damn scared of Retics. BTW sweet move with the Corns, great snakes.
X-Kill, your playing with fire man, DO NOT freehandle them, only by the tail or with a hook (a putter works great.)
Are you keeping them captive??, or just catch and release?? I doubt they will live long in captivity, stress is hard on snakes and you will probably never get them to eat. Be very careful and definitely email me, I'm very interested in what you are doing.

Nice snakes. I once had a Solomon Island tree boa. That thing was nice! My brother had a red-tail, but he returned it becuase it would always try to bite him. I'm thinking of getting back into the hobby, but guns are of more interest right now.

Keep an eye on that rock python. I had a pair of captive bred queensland carpet pythons that I bought as babies. The male was nasty from the start. I would get bittten 10-15 times a day trying to get him to settle down. He settled down when I bumped them up from grown mice to small rats. However he would still tag me every now and then. I finally decided to sell the pair (they were about 6ft). When the prospecive buyer wanted to handle the male, I was leery and warned him to make sure he wanted to take the risk. He insisted, so took out the male. The buyer checked him out and then handed him back. As I was trying to get him back into the encolsure, He got me good. He got me around the meat of my thumb and continued to wrap and constrict. The bite wasn't bad and I knew how to get him off of my arm, but I was bleeding a lot and both his girlfriend and mine, freaked.
He ended up buying the pair any way, but at half the cost. At that point I almost gave them away. Keep in mind that this is an extreme scenario, and not the norm. I've owned close to 100 reptiles over the years, and he was the exception.

I hate snakes. because I fear them. Some of my worst nightmares have involved snakes. everytime I see one in the field I am nervous the rest of the day. I once almost walked over an 8 foot rattler while on patrol. good thing I spotted it or NoCompromise might not be typing this today... lol